Sky and Sea
by DuskyDancing
Summary: After being swallowed by the Heartless storm, Kairi finds herself in a place of unending Darkness and up against a formidable enemy. There's one person who can save them all, and Kairi is willing to do anything to keep him safe.


**Content warning**: mild depictions of violence and disturbing imagery.

This is basically my super late piece for SoKai day. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Last Kairi remembered, Axel lay unconscious beside her as the enemy continued to grow around them. Clouds of dust made it hard to see, but she could feel the heavy Darkness.

Next she knew, a wave of Shadows swept them both up. She tried to fight it, but pulling the weight of both herself and Axel made it impossible. Even her full strength wouldn't have been able to resist the sheer power. Her stomach rose to her chest, but there was no physical pain like she'd expected.

Last she saw, Sora reached out to her amidst the thickening Darkness.

She stretched her arm as far as she physically could, wishing for just a few more inches. It wasn't enough as the storm pulled her straight to its center.

Last she heard, he let out a guttural scream. One she hoped never to hear from him.. The pain in his voice reverberated within her heart.

_Sora, hold on_, she thought.

A moment later she found herself alone. The winds had died, the Heartless had disappeared, and she stood stationary with her hand still stretched out.

_Where...am I?_

All around her was dark, but as her eyes adjusted, more of her surroundings revealed themselves. Her only light source was a dim blue ceiling far above her.

_Is this...death?_

A distant figure came into view not far away. They were floating but still, as if asleep. As she approached, she recognized her.

"Aqua!" she broke into a sprint.

Up close, Kairi knew it was Aqua, yet the Keyblade Master barely retained her form. All color had been drained from her, nothing left but a transparent shell shimmering under the light. Kairi tried to touch her arm, but her hand passed straight through.

Kairi covered her mouth as she backed away.

_What happened to you?_

Her peripheral caught a glimpse of movement, and she quickly turned only to find more darkness.

"Your Majesty? Is that you?" she called out, slowly stepping forward. "Donald? Goofy? Ventus?"

Soon she found all four of them scattered around the same area, but their condition was no better than Aqua's.

_No._

_No no no!_

"Axel!" she cried, "please, answer me!"

Her eye caught movement once more, but whatever it was escaped her gaze again. That time, a strange sound of deep wind chimes accompanied it.

What she did find, however, was Axel. His body floated, yet it differed from the rest. His entire form was still there, filled with color and tangible. She grasped his arm and shook him, "Axel, please wake up. Tell me you're okay."

He remained unresponsive. Whether he was asleep or unconscious, he was still breathing. That much mattered.

She felt trapped, hopeless, with no way to rescue her friends. Tears formed in her eyes, but before any could fall, a giant shape rushed out of the shadows at her.

No scream escaped her as she fell back. Instead of attacking or coming any closer, it floated over her and Axel. She stared straight through the large heart-shaped hole in the center of its chest. It wielded a staff of similar shape. Chains clanked together beneath its short robes, making the familiar chiming sound she'd heard.

A Heartless. But unlike any she'd fought before.

She remained frozen in fear when it raised its staff. Both the heart in its staff and the creatures chest swelled with a pale pink glow. Before she could summon her weapon, the staff drained all life and color from Axel's body.

She watched in horror, unable to move or breathe as Axel's form became the same transparent luminescence as the rest. Heartless fed off of people's hearts, she knew that much, but had never witnessed the act so dreadfully before.

The creature just stared at her for a moment and tilted its head. A heart floated in the center of its previously empty chest, and she didn't have to guess whose it was.

She leapt to her feet, Destiny's Embrace firm in her grasp, "Return Axel's heart, you monster!" she shouted. To think he'd just gotten it back, only to have it stolen again so quickly.

Unsurprisingly, her words held no affect. It raised its staff once more, and a sharp pain overtook her chest. It was brief, however, as the Heartless quickly recoiled back with pain.

Heartless didn't just feed off of people's hearts, but the Darkness within them.

Right.

Her posture straightened. "You can't touch me," she glared straight into its yellow eyes, breathing heavily. Whether it could actually understand her or not, she didn't care. "Now, give my friends their hearts back!"

She and Axel were the last to go, which left only Sora and Riku in the Realm of Light. If she could recover everyone's hearts, then maybe -

A flashing light from above interrupted her thoughts, and another glowing form descended. She recognized him immediately.

Riku.

"No," pain gripped her heart once more, only it wasn't from the Heartless that time. She kept her composure. That was, until a second figure appeared.

"Sora..." she muttered.

_Please, not him. _

_Anyone but him. _

Tears blurred her vision. Her legs didn't even wait for the rest of her body to respond and took off towards Riku. A swirl of wind rose up from under her feet, throwing her into the air. She landed hard, and the Heartless dashed past her as she recovered.

There was no way to beat it. It was more swift, more powerful than she was. She reached out helplessly as the monster did to Riku what it had done to everyone else.

She turned to Sora, who had now come to rest a short ways from her. And, unfortunately, she wasn't the only one with eyes on him.

She sprinted once again, but not towards Sora. Instead, she aimed to intercept the Heartless before it could even reach him. It had its gluttonous eyes so focused on him that she surprised it by jumping and ripping its staff right out of its grip.

"Try using your magic without this," she grumbled, and threw it as far away from Sora as she possibly could. Her own strength surprised her, and the Heartless quickly abandoned its path to retrieve the focus of its power.

There was no time to celebrate. It was still faster than her, and she needed all the extra time she could spare.

She quickly ran to Sora. Even as the jangling of chains grew closer, she pushed her legs to move faster.

Before long, he was a mere few feet from her. She did the only thing that made sense and threw herself forward.

With Destiny's Embrace raised high, she shouted, "Shield!" and protected his body with her own. If nothing else worked, that _thing _would have to get through her before it touched him.

He smelled like the desert, his skin, clothes and hair brushed with sand from their previous battle. None of that mattered, though. She held him close, gripped him tight, waiting for the inevitable moment when he'd slip from her grasp again.

But that didn't happen.

There was a loud crack, then complete silence. Her head slowly lifted from his chest, only for her vision to be obscured by a half-transparent dome of Light surrounding them. The Heartless floated on the other side, but kept its intense glowing stare on Sora.

A relieved laugh escaped from her, but her hold on Sora didn't let up one bit.

He looked so peaceful, always smiling even in his sleep. She brushed a few strands of hair out of his face and smiled. If anyone was going to rescue their friends' hearts, it was him. No matter what happened, he needed to live.

"Sora, I'm here," she said. "Please. If you can hear me, show me you're still here too."

As she held him, trying to reach his heart with words, a thought crossed her mind:

_I'm in love with him, aren't I?_

Her heart flared with warmth, like being embraced from within. Her smile brightened; so the legend of the paopu fruit was true. She still cried, but her tears were that of joy instead of loss.

With the sudden warmth, the protective dome around them expanded. Instead of a cold dark ground, her knees dampened in water. It was shallow, barely an inch deep, yet had no end, no shore, no waves. As the dome grew rapidly, it revealed a vast blue sky filled with dancing clouds. Not dark storm clouds, but light and fluffy ones.

Her gaze shifted back to the boy in her arms. His eyes were still closed, his chest rising and falling with each sigh. A smile crept across her face as tears continued to fall down her cheek.

"I've got you, Sora."

Suddenly, a dark clawed hand shot out of the water right beneath them, grasping desperately for the heart it hungered for. Kairi moved swiftly, pushing Sora out of its reach. Instead of clutching Sora, its claws dug deep into Kairi's ankle. She winced with pain and looked to a motionless Sora once more. He needed more, something to wake him and protect him.

She fought as the Heartless tried to pull her under, her hips now completely submerged in the seemingly shallow water. Summoning Destiny's Embrace, she directed it at him and shouted, "Sora, take my Light! You need it more than I do."

As a glowing light shot from her Keyblade, her strength weakened. In one swift motion, the Heartless pulled her under.

As the surface grew further and further away, the last she saw was a burst of Light where Sora once lay. The growing pressure, the pain in her ankle, the pull of the Heartless, none of it mattered anymore. She smiled.

He would be okay.

"I believe in you."

She turned and faced the Heartless. If she could still do anything, she had to keep it as far away from Sora as possible until he was ready.

Her hand reached out, and surprisingly, Destiny's Embrace still returned to her. Despite her Light residing within someone else, the weapon stayed with her.

With her free leg, she kicked the Heartless loose and dove down after it. She drove her Keyblade right into its center, and pushed further with all her strength. Their roles had reversed. Now she was in control.

Water rushed past her with exceeding pressure, but Destiny's Embrace helped when her own strength waned. The creature was helplessly incapacitated by the time it tried to free itself.

Suddenly, a new surface approached, darker than the other. They broke through, and gravity shifted, landing them on the surface they'd just emerged from. Kairi stumbled and coughed, her lungs desperate for air. The sudden shift in gravity only added more disorientation.

The scenery was identical to the one she'd first found herself in, with the transparent forms of her companions resting around her once again.

She looked up, and the Heartless floated above, staff in hand. Pulling the wet hair from her face, she took a fighting stance and prepared Destiny's Embrace.

"His heart doesn't belong to you."

A familiar wind swirled beneath her feet, and she dodged out of the way in time to evade the whirlwind. She took the opening and leapt at the Heartless, landing one, two, three blows onto its body.

It teleported away before allowing a fourth hit, leaving behind a gaseous duplicate that stung to inhale. She landed coughing and quickly located the real one. It raised its staff, and three fireballs honed in on her. Luckily, raising Destiny's Embrace was enough to guard against them.

She prepared a ranged Pearl attack from her Keyblade, but no Light formed at the end of her weapon. She'd gotten so used to using Light magic liberally that she'd forgotten where it originated from. Though Destiny's Embrace stayed with her, her magic was tied directly to her Light. And in that moment, it was in a more important place.

"That's okay," she took an offensive stance, "I don't need it."

They continued to trade blows, neither really able to pin down the other. The Heartless had everything at its disposal, however, while Kairi was without any magic to heal herself with. The Darkness began to weigh down her movements, and she grew tired. Still, she fought with all her strength, doing her part.

The Heartless caught her in another gust of wind and knocked her onto her back. Before she could get up, it pushed her back down with its hand against her neck. She kicked it away and slashed at it again.

It rushed back down at her with its staff held high, and she held it back with her Keyblade. As her elbows began to buckle under its strength, it became clear that she'd reached her limit.

She'd keep fighting. Even if she perished now, atleast she'd gotten to keep Sora safe, to share the paopu fruit with him, to keep her promise.

A flicker of light caught the corner of her eye, and she dared to look away from her assailant. Riku's form began to glow. She knew exactly what that meant and smiled through the strain. Sora was awake, and he was fighting.

The Heartless turned its attention away from Kairi and rushed at Riku. Before it could reach him, a light flashed, and he was gone.

Kairi picked herself up onto her knees and chuckled, "Looks like you've got bigger problems now."

The Heartless no longer regarded her presence. It quickly disappeared into Darkness, leaving her alone with the rest of her friends. She sat to rest her exhausted legs and massage her sore shoulders. Now she was the one waiting, trusting that Sora would pull through. It was no easy foe, but Sora had handled worse.

The few minutes of silence felt like hours. There was no wind, no noise, only the sound of her own breathing.

Another light flashed where Riku had been, and she sat up attentively. Inch by inch, Riku's form pieced itself back together, color returned to his face, and a glowing pink heart entered his chest. His eyes shot open as he gasped for air.

He landed on his feet and glanced around, startled by his sudden emergence just as she had been.

"Riku!" she ran and threw her arms around him, causing him to stumble back.

"Kairi...where are we?"

"Sora did it," tears welled in her eyes, "he's bringing everyone back."

Riku thought for a moment then chuckled. "He really is hopeless without us, isn't he?"

She laughed while wiping tears from her face. Suddenly, a ray of light enveloped his entire body, lifting him from the ground. Before she could say goodbye, it shot straight up, bringing him with it.

Riku was safe back in the Realm of Light. They'd sort out the details later; all that mattered was getting everyone back - getting Sora back.

One by one, each guardian's heart returned to its rightful place, and they were swiftly brought back to the Realm of Light. Soon only she remained.

But she knew she wasn't alone. Her heart retained the same warmth as before. Despite the long silence, she had no fear of being left behind. She kept her hands intertwined over her heart and her gaze towards the surface.

When the beam of Light came for her, she welcomed it. Her feet lifted from the ground effortlessly, like an invisible tether pulling her through. When her Light returned to her heart, she knew it was him.

"Sora…"

She reached out her hand, ready to go home.


End file.
